For every Prey or Blade Runner 2049 there are a dozen uninspired retreads of beloved old sci-fi franchises. So a Matrix reboot may not be the best news

Somewhere over the digital horizon, down the rabbit hole and straight on til morning, a new Matrix episode is brewing. After handing us three deeply average (at best) sequels to the majestic original 1999 film, studio Warner Bros has decided to hand the keys of the Nebuchadnezzar to Drew Goddard, whose writing credits include The Martian, The Cabin in the Woods, and Cloverfield. It’s probably a good idea, because the series’ creators, Lana and Lilly Wachowski, have clearly run out of ideas if 2021’s completely superfluous The Matrix Resurrections is anything to go by (although to be fair, Lilly did not even get involved in that one).

Resurrections joined the ranks of belated sequels to science fiction and fantasy totems that never quite live up to the standards of the original, yet somehow still keep coming. Next year we are due a new Tron movie, Tron: Ares , which will star Jared Leto, Gillian Anderson, Evan Peters and Greta Lee. These are all actors who have done fine work, and director Joachim Rønning is an Oscar nominee who made a passable effort on 2017’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales , yet there is at least a 50% chance the movie will carry all the cultural weight of a new Lighthouse Family album. There is also a new Alien movie in the works, which does at least look promising . And it can only be so long before somebody in LA drags Arnie out of retirement for one last Terminator retread.

Writer of The Martian, Cloverfield and World War Z will write and direct fifth film in seminal cyberpunk franchise

Movie-goers are headed back to the Matrix . Warner Brothers announced on Wednesday that The Martian screenwriter Drew Goddard will write and direct a new movie in the sci-fi action franchise for the studio.

This will be the first in the cyberpunk series, which includes the 1999 original as well as The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions and The Matrix Resurrections, not to directly involve its co-creators Lana or Lilly Wachowski, though Lana is attached to executive produce. No word yet on whether the franchise stars Keanu Reeves , Laurence Fishburne, Carrie Anne-Moss, Hugo Weaving and Jada Pinkett-Smith will return.